Space Cadets
 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/default.stm

Anyone else looking forward to this? On one hand I feel it's slightly cruel and more scraping of the barrel as it comes down to simply making fun of someone's suggestibility - on the other hand it will be interesting to see how some people will believe anything if the conditions are right.

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Been waiting for it to start, gonna love the reactions when they find out its a hoax.
With them all believing in ALiens and are all very suggestible, it should make for an entertaining program

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I knew nothing about it apart from the trailers until I read an item in the paper this morning. I thought it was going to be a comedy in the vein of Red Dwarf!

I don't know what to make of it now, I have grown more and more ambivalent towards the whole genre of Reality TV, but at least with something like Big Brother, you know that the people getting humiliated are the authors of their own downfall.

I am far from certain about the morality of doing this to people who have not courted publicity or TV stardom. If someone goes on Big Brother and is then tarred for the next five years as 'that self-important moron from that show' then that's their own fault. But what of these unwitting 'contestants'? None of them will have asked for it if they get labelled 'that stupid mug who didn't realise he was in the middle of a big TV stunt'.

Besides, Rome is on BBC2 at the same time and I'll be watching that. It's been rather good.

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Isn't this the one where they thought they'd blown it right at the start? One of the 'contestants' (or whatever they are) apparently opened the blind on the plane they were travelling in, just as they were going over Canary Wharf? :D

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So I heard, I'd like to know how they explained that....:angel:

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According to this the route has been planned to avoid anything like that happening.

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i read it was to do with a window/blind near or on route to their 'training camp' opening to reveal white cliffs of dover. They were distracted by something else so didnt notice. Apparently some of the 'recruits' are plants/actors to go along with it.

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looking forward to this, have it series linked already :)

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i am looking forward to it as well as i would like to see how they hope to pull it all off ,

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Well - the missus just asked me to add it to the sky+ list so I guess I'll watch the 1st episode and see what I think

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Lots on tonight with Space Cadets, LOST, and Late night hollyoaks.

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I really hope the Scottish guy with the ginger mega-afro doesn't make it.....

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lol

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The afro is in :(

Looks like we've also got a token camp bloke (an essential in reality tv) who seems to be a cross between Graham Norton and Herr Lipp from League of Gentlemen....

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send stev home .

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They can't, he's in on the show.

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ok then give him his p45 or a nice space walk on day one .

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One of the silliest ideas yet for reality TV. It's so unbeleivable it's going to be compelling.

It's going to be interesting to see how long the scam can hold up and whether the "contestants" actually have any grey matter.

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I tuned in to the last 10 minutes after Rome finished on BBC2, just in time to see them lined up on the tarmac and told they're going into space.

This programme left me feeling very sad indeed. The 'contestants' are guilty of nothing more heinous than being a bit gullible, and for that, their Christmas present this year is to be made a national laughing stock. Channel 4 has clearly tried to cover its sorry ar$e with that whole 'pick someone you really trust' routine and then getting those people to give 'consent' for the stunt to go ahead, but it doesn't wash with me.

Has it occurred to anyone that the fact these people are known to be 'suggestible' (they were picked for this very reason) may mean they are usually the butt of stupid pranks like this among their friends, and they may privately be totally sick of it, hurt by it, and frustrated by their own inability to spot this sort of thing coming?

The Victorian freak show is back with a vengeance. Channel 4 has hit a new low. This is a sad day for civilised TV. :(

How anyone can watch and enjoy this with a clear conscience is totally beyond me.

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I'm sure the £5k a day that will get after the show's finished will soften the blow.

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Sorry, I was forgetting the universal healing power of money.

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Could they not have got some better "actors" tho. That Steve was such a wimp/cry baby (and i dont think he was acting then)

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Hey if someone wants to pay me £5k they can play all the practical jokes they want.

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TBH, although I like Johnny Vaughan (I am an avid listener of the breakfast show on Capital), I found the show slightly boring. I'll give it another go, however, as it was only the first one last night.

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I can't believe there is a discussion of the quality of the acting, presenting and the size of the payment to the participants going on as if this was just another episode of the Crystal Maze.

Has nobody got anything to say about the way these people are being exploited, or has this become such a normal part of British TV that everyone thinks it's ok, or worse, has failed to notice?

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Wha'ts the point? You've already made your viewpoint clear.

I didn't like it - it was boring. And I can't believe that even the people 'chosen' are stupid/silly enough to fall for it the whole way through.

Yes they are being exploited if you look at it that way and NO it's not abnormal now. And I didn't say it was right either.

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Take it you weren't a fan of Jeremy Beadle's show when it was on?

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Yes, as an immature, selfish teenager, I was a big fan. Needless to say if were on now, I would not be.

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Yeah, but Beadle was on prime time, and it was just light-hearted mickey taking. You've got to give him a hand...

Re: Space Cadets
 

Your gonna be done by the disability squad mate ;)

---------- Post added at 11:32 ---------- Previous post was at 11:29 ----------

I actually enjoyd some parts of yesterdays show, and I will be watching the rest of the series to see how Channel 4 manage to pull this of, especially with the way they deal with "launching" the winners into space. I wanna see how they replicate the physical pressures on the "astronaughts" at lift off

What I would have loved to see tho, is how the crew cope if they were told that theres a problem on the ship and they have to remain in orbit for another 5 years!

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Its quite interesting all that they are doing to convert it into a russian base.
I'l be watching it tonight too to see how it progresses.

Apparently the actor who wasnt doing anything and was ill has now left the show.

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SO. You're ginger afro-ist are you? ;)

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Dont watch it then:erm:

Watched it with a clear conscience and enjoyed it.:D

Maybe all this moderating has eroded away your sense of humour.

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Nah, it's just 'cos the guy's Scottish - you know these Celtic types aren't happy unless they're moaning ;) :D

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exploited? They signed up for a reality show, they have been well treated and getting paid well for it.

I'm sure they will be big people and will be fine with it.

If it offends you then i think the issue is yours alone.

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Anyway Channel 4 promised them an "experience of a lifetime". Isn't this what they are delivering? I still dont know how they will recreate the g forces tho. Any ideas?

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Not sure, but they've apparently got 7-Zark-7 in to help :D

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From the C4 pages:

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'Air biscuits'? Too right there'll be air biscuits if they think something's gone wrong - there'll be a right hum :disturbd:

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Still doesnt explain how they will recreate the G Forces! thats the main thing im watching the programme for

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In florida there's a ride at universal studios based on spiderman.

You go round in a large car type thing anf there are projections on the walls and light effects etc. Near the end the car tilts to give the impression you are dangling off the edge of a skyscraper and wobbles. you are lent forward so there is force pulling on your harness. In front of you is a screen with a projection on. It then gives you the impression that you have fallen off the top and are dropping down some way before 'spiderman' comes to save you. It totally gives you the impression of falling and force when if you look to the side you can make out the walls etc and that you are not moving.

I guess it will be something like that, once you absorbed into things anyting is belivable.

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Nice attempt to personalise it, yeah, thanks for that. :rolleyes: Thankfully it's not my issue alone. The principle of standards in TV is still something that interests a lot of people and I note several of the papers complaining of 'exploitation' following last night's broadcast.

Did it ever occur to you that demanding the 'victim' of a practical joke be 'big enough' and have a 'sense of humour' are the usual bully tactics of people who pull pranks on others and then insist it's the victim's fault if they don't appreciate the joke?

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I am hoping not, but there is the possibility that all of them are in fact actor's and we are the ones being conned.

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Can i eat air biscuits while on the atkins diet? Anyway back to topic..... thats a good point halcyon .... this series is sure to get the ratings up, whether they are all actors or "innocent" victims. it would be easier to make if they were all actors tho.

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For all those claiming of exploitation, the "satellite show" thing that folowed on E4 showed 3 of the failure. They were all sorry to have missed out, even when they were let in on the joke.

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I'm sure they have been picked not only for their suggestability but also for other factors as well.

If you had watched the show you would have seen them (the victims) discussing space travel and the costs involved. Surley they should have realised that channel 4 would not stump up 100 million to rake 5 people to space ;but they did not.

This will just be one of a long list of things we'll disagree on.

Re: Space Cadets
 

I'm happy for us to disagree on any number of things. It makes forums much more interesting. :)

I do accept that the 'contestants' on this show have been picked because they are gullible and stupid (you would have to be, to believe what they're being told). I just don't think it's an excuse for what C4 is doing to them.

Still, on with the show I suppose.

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I didn't watch it so I can't really comment, but does anyone know whether the battery of preshow tests included intelligence. Heard someone saying on the radio that if the contestants had any sense they would know that a flight to Moscow takes longer than 4 hours, that Moscow is currently -3 degrees rather than the 'balmy' 8 in Suffolk, and that the signs at a Russian airfield would not all look brand new and not be written in both Russian and English. Seems like a fair comment to me ;) .

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Maybe political correctness is spreading to russian airbases....... ;)

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Often, the more intelligent are actually easier to con.
As with most deceptions, as long as you start with something entirely believable, then once people have bought into it you can get more ridiculous as time goes on and they just won't notice.

How many people know the flying time to Moscow? Not many.
As for the temperature - yeah I'd say that could be a giveaway, but I'm sure they'll just blame it on global warming or an unseasonally warm winter. Again, I doubt few of them have any idea what the typical weather is in whatever part of Russia they're supposed to be in. (Did they say Moscow? Russia is HUGE and I'm sure there's parts of it where it is even warmer than in Suffolk.)

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I wonder just how many of the "winners" of this show will say "I knew it was a wind-up" when its all finished? Wouldnt that defeat the whole purpose of the show?

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I started to watch this last night, but after about 5 minutes of watching the incredibly irritating Johnny Vaughan and the somewhat empty-headed guinea pigs, (if thats what they really are?) it was like the gullible watching the guilible... I shall watch no more of this cheap entertainment thats geared towards the masses of no lifers outthere! Shame on you for taking enjoyment out of other peoples gullibility. But maybe they will have the last laugh! wink wink.. ;)

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In one of the local rags up here the Scottish girl looks like she is getting fired when she gets back seeing she walked out of her job as she was so sure that this would make her a star. :(

I can see both points of the argument. It does appear to be pretty cruel to pick on these people as they are easily led and can be manipulated.

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One thing I think they should have done is make the signs they put up look quite old to fit in with the old air base. They look pretty new. Plus they said they were put up with blue-tak......hardly the stuff you would use for an airbase.

Johnny Vaughn is OK as apresenter but his jokes dont amuse me.

Oh, for those that dont already know, the secret location in Ipswitch is the Bentwaters airbase. More info about it HERE


Rumour has it they are planning an asteroid storm.

What do you think would be the best way to come clean to them ?
Maybe santa coming in to the shuttle or something.
Or have some aliens storm the shuttle.
I want their earth simulator PC to crash and display a BSOD.

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Maybe the side of the shuttle comes off to reveal a production team drinking tea :)

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Send Johnny Vaughan out to do a space walk, with a squeegee to clean the windscreen of the spacecraft :D

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Surely they're not going to try and convince them they really ARE in space? I'd assumed it would stop before getting that far.

They can't possibly be convinced they made it up there - I mean they must know there's no gravity right?

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I think I read somewhere the idea would be they were in a low level orbit, so there would be some gravity.

Anyway all those dodgy sci fi movies that feature spacestations have gravity, so why not the Space Cadets :erm:

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:Yikes: is all I can say :Yikes:

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Maybe the point is to make it somewhat relistic, but have big flaws like the lack of G-Force, no weightlessness etc to see just how far they can push it.

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They are solving the problem of lack of weightlessness by telling the cadets that they will not be flying to outerspace, but "inner space", which still has gravity.
Anyway about the flight time from UK to Russian. not being funny but shouldnt most young adults (as these guys obviously are) know that UK to Russia is more than 3 hours away? Especially when they travelled on a propellor driven small plane? Maybe they took everyones watches of first tho.

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They could just cut out all power to the ship, plunge them into darkness, and make them think they've crash landed on some new planet.

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Did it say how long they where flying for? could have been several hours?

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Halcyon, what does your name (i.e the word Halcyon) mean. I saw it used in the paper today, and can't be arsed to look it up, but its been bugging me today

---------- Post added at 16:24 ---------- Previous post was at 16:22 ----------

Im sure they mentioned 3 hours handyman. This could seem like hours and hours if you didnt have a watch as you'd soon lose track of time. But removing watches from the passengers would just make people suspicious

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http://www.britsuperstore.com/acatalog/Topic.jpg :dozey: ;)

Re: Space Cadets
 

What? its another name for a chocolate bar?

Re: Space Cadets
 

Nope, it's a request for you to stick to the topic :p:

I'm being a bit of a topic nazi today, we are getting a lot of digression in the various discussions. Off topic chat can cause a thread to die out prematurely, or can exclude newer members who don't feel they know the others well enough to join in. :)

Re: Space Cadets
 

Damn you I ordered a topic on the afternoon choccie run but had to put up with a double decker as the shop had none in. :cry:

Anyhoo back on topic, looking forward to tonights show :0

Re: Space Cadets
 

[off topic] It means: Calm and peaceful; tranquil. According to dictionary.com

But I chose it as its from two music tracks I like that go by that name.
Oribtal - Halcyon and Chicane - Halcyon.
[/off topic]


Maybe they could suggest things ever so slightly as the days go by, like having a hot air baloon fly by with the channel 4 logo on it or something.

Re: Space Cadets
 

refering to earlier posts.

Temperatures in Russia do vary wildly, one place has +40 degress in the summer to -65 degrees in winter, so they could just tell them that the summer has finished and it the right temp for the time of the year (if you've never been there how are you going to know how hot/cold it's going to be.

Gravity (or lack of) is going to be hard to to get around, I know that space starts at around 68 miles up.

The launch is going to be hard to get around, the noise and G forces are hugh, (I spoke to somebody while on holiday in Florida and they can feel and hear the launch over 5 miles away, they described the launch like standing next to a hugh bass speaker on full.)

If had had applied for this I would have failed along the way,
A) I have a interest in Space.
B) I can not only name more than 4 Star Trek characters I can name all the main characters and the actors/actresses who played them.

Must prove that i'm not that gulible then.

Re: Space Cadets
 

The thing is these people have never been in space and their minds are so rumbled with the thoughts that they are going there, that they won't care about much else for some time.
As they've never been to space, they havent a clue about how a real take off feels so they should be able to get around that without too many problems.

As for the weightlessness issue, they have been told some kind of nonsense about them reaching pre-orbit or sub orbit or something like that where gravity will not be a problem.

I am looking forward to tonights show.

Re: Space Cadets
 

They could have taken it a step further and had them "return to earth".....then have them met by people in monkey suits......Planet of the Apes....FOR REAL :)

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Just watched a bit of tonight's and it said the flight was four hours and the space cadets had their watches taken from them.

EDIT Just seen the start of the satellite show on E4 and that said it was a five hour flight.

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what a ridiculous programme. How on earth did they find so many numpties!!

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I think it is hilarious, I can only hope it is a wind up on our part.

come on anyone who knows anything would be sceptical about a british man being employed to run a russian base...

Re: Space Cadets
 

According to last night's program they'll try convince them there is such a constellation as the 'hazelnut cluster'.

I wonder if the actors will manage that with a straight face.

As it was, a couple of times last night you could see some of them having difficulties with that.

But it seemed that whatever doubts some of them may have had, their surroundings were sufficiently like their expectations of a Russian military installation to quell those doubts - for now.

---------- Post added at 08:25 ---------- Previous post was at 08:19 ----------

The most that many people know about this is what they've seen in the cinema. And since they're using cinema special effects, it's likely that the experience will live up to expectations.
Even then, how sure would you be of yourself to risk making an idiot of yourself - knowing it's being recorded for TV?

In last night's show the commander mentioned the 'motto' - something about adventurers. But he used the word 'rakette' - Russian for rocket. Yet the motto didn't have the word rocket in it. They're taking chances early on - it doesn't require a full working knowledge of Russian to spot that one.

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Thats the point, they were selected because theyre thick!

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What about the planted "actor" who almost stumped the lecturer with his dumb question. He justified it by saying "he really thought he was going into space". Wouldnt it have been easier and cheaper to get Paul MKenna to hypnotise the lot of them?

Re: Space Cadets
 

These days that is entirely possible.

Although he did quite clearly say he'd left the airforce to join S.T.A.R. (A commercial enterprise) so why did he initially appear in uniform?
But that wicked RAF moustache etc. - I think it's very funny.

Shame it's fronted by Johnny Vaughan - he's such a prat. But at least he's not a Geordie...

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I think at the end of this show, channel 4 are going to put a whole heap of questions to the 'winners' along the lines of whats being asked in this thread..... eg) Didnt you notice . etc etc etc. Hopefully they will start their questions with "Are you so stupid not to realise....."

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That plane could only stay up in the air for 3 hrs of so before running out of fuel.

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One of the contestants actually made a comment of how fast they had got to russia.

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According to a quick Google, flight time from London to Moscow is about 3h45m. I think they were supposed to have landed in Krimsk which is a bit nearer to the UK, so a 3 hour flight is probably about right.

But they also had their watches removed, and were rather excited about the prospect of going into space, so they're not likely to actually know how much time had elapsed.

And for those questioning the massive forces generated during take-off, the ex-RAF bloke said that their 'shuttle' would take off and land like a traditional aircraft which is rather handy, as I think even the Ch4 boffins would have struggled to fake a rocket launch.

I'm quite looking forward to seeing how far they can push it before some of the contestants start to think that something's not quite right.

Re: Space Cadets
 

Interesting article on BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4509946.stm

Which includes this quote from comedian Arthur Smith:
I think he might have a point there.

But I also liked this quote:
Specially the description of the qualities of a TV contestant. :)

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This program just gets better and better, or sillier and sillier. I don't care about the conspiracy theories that the viewer is the one being had. It's the funniest thing I've seen for a loooooooong while.

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I don't proclaim to be any kind of expert on space, but please, the Hazlenut Cluster? It's almost like they've been brainwashed. They're so focuessed on the goal that they can't seem to see anything else.

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i like the way they are doing home work :@) as if that will help them .

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Thankgoodness I wasnt employed on that show. I'd have blown it before it even began, laughing my head off.

All that stuff about that monkey in space lol.
They are completly crazy. The actors in there must be having so much fun.

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They were told that they would only be orbiting in "near space" (100km), so they wouldn't feel the effects of weightlessness.

I take it, that the first ones they weeded out, were the ones who had ever had a physics lesson at school then! :D

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AHA!

I suggest you start watching the adverts more closely!

I just watched an advert for the Blood Donor Service - the one that starts with Martin Kemp.

Just before the end there is a bloke in the advert, and I'd swear he's the ginger affro haired bloke from Space Cadets!

So maybe there are more actors that we were made aware of...

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all of this was in the sun on friday he worked as a actor in the past but gave it up . or so they say ......

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I loved the Russian poem last night - 'instructor' Val read the recipe for Toad in the Hole in Russian, supposedly an ode to his comrade cosmonauts :D

They have also been told they have an anti-gravity device on the shuttle as well :D

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I heard it mentionedby Jonny Vaughn last night that all of the muppets will attend trainging at a genuine russian space camp after the series comes to an end. So its not all bad news for these guys after all

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Does anyone know if those who have not made the flight been told yet about the hoax?

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I wouldn't have thought so unless they've already been removed from the camp. However, I was suprised that Charlie got picked as the actor to go on the mission. I'd have thought Raine would be a better choice. With Charlies notes in his book being torn out by the lecturer, he just acts a bit like a kid who has a secret, and doesn't seem to be helping the show too much.

But at least the idiotic actor/lecturer didn't give the complete game away with his "sorry I can't be at the party", "...when you go on your spacewalk" and "oh yeah, that was mostly filmed here" comments. Fool. I bet he doesn't get a lot of work now.

Can't wait to see tonights 'launch' though. I really hope they can pull it all together as that's really the one thing that will make or break the show.

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Ah yes but he was a set designer, not an actor, so why o why was he even giving the lecture :confused: Perhaps they've spent so much on props that they can't afford proper actors :dozey:

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It's pants.

Jonny vaughan is not funney and ruins it.

And the fact that it is totally unbelievable. Either these people fell out of the stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down or they are all in on it.

"we're going to send you into space, but your orbit willbe so low that you'll still have gravity........................." not one question, no one blinked an eye.

Surely one of THE main experiences of going into space is weightlessness, and if you weren't going to experience it you'd surely have to question the point of the whole thing??????

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well, I caught about five minutes of this last night, and my vote is with the 'stupid tree' option. And I think it was a very, very tall tree, with lots and lots of branches. :erm:

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Actually one wonders how they had the ability to even climb into the stupid tree in the first place - or maybe they thought they would be closer to space :p:

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Alarm bells started ringing after just a few minutes of watching this crap! An impossible stunt to pull, no matter how stupid they are. The hoax is on you the gullible viewer! :dunce: ;)